Sikh Separatism

A holistic understanding of Sikh separatism is not possible without going back into history, down the centuries, revisiting the events that shaped the Sikh psyche in the years that followed. While nothing in the past can justify the mindless violence that gripped Punjab for fifteen long years, a study of the developments leading up to the same helps expose the misdeeds of those who exploited religion to take innocent lives in later years, and the brazen manner in which they desecrated the memory of the gurus, whom they constantly invoked to justify their acts. The concept of separatism, though, has been an inherent element of the Sikh faith. One separatism prepared the ground for and led to another. When Guru Nanak founded the pacifist faith of Sikhism, it was a separatist revolt against many beliefs and rituals that were part of other religions. Then came two separatist movements within the Sikh religion itself. The first was when Guru Hargobind straddled two swords around his waist—the presence of a weapon, in itself, made for revolutionary symbolism. The second was when the martial face of Sikhism was institutionalized—during Guru Gobind Singh’s time—with the creation of the Khalsa and the strengthening of the Sikh armed forces. Political separatism—driven by religious fervor—began in the 1920s, with the formation of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal. The Sikh separatist movement, which began as a campaign to underline the unique Sikh identity, turned anti-national and militant in the years that followed. This book covers the period since the establishment of the Sikh religion in the fifteenth century to the crushing of militancy in the mid-nineties. The book winds up with a note of caution, that we must never lower our guard.